Life-boat-releasing gear.



R M. WOTTON.

LIFE BOAT BELBASING GEAR.

APPLICATION FILED DEG.1, 1913. l Lfgy wie latented Jan. 26, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

P.' M. WoTToN. LIFE BOA-T RBLBASING GEAR.

'APPLICATION FILED DEO.1, 1913.'

pge wanted Jawa, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHBET 2.

fm/@May UNITED STATES PETER IVI. WOTTON, OF BRISTOL, ENGLAND.

LIFE-BOAT-RELEASING GEAR.

Application filed December 1, 1913.

To all tti/1.0m t may concern Be it known that I, PETER M. W'o'r'roN, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of the city of Bristol, in the county of Somerset, England, have invented new and useful Improvements in Life-Boat-Releasing Gear, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to improvements in life-boat releasing gear andthe main object is to provide a connecting means between the boat and the fall tackles supporting same which when released at one end will automatically and simultaneously release at the opposite end.

Another object is to provide a longitudinal division in the center of the boat to prevent the occupants moving from side to side and thus capsizing the boat.

Various other subsidiary objects will be apparent from the following description.

At the present time the life-boats in general use are connected to the falls by means of hooks on the boat engaging beckets on the lower fall blocks. W'hen the boat is to be disconnected from the falls the boat must be in the water and the falls slackened sufficiently to allow the hooks to be thrown out of the beckets. If the boat is launched in rough water it is very often difficult, if not impossible to unhook both falls simultaneously. If only one fall unhooks the boat cannot get away promptly and may be stove in against the vessels hull or the unhooked end may drop into a trough of the sea so that the boat stands practically on end and the crew and passengers are spilled into the sea. It may also happen that one releasing device has become so rusted or coated with ice that it could be released under ideal conditions only with great difficulty. If this were the case not only would that boat be lost or useless in a sudden emergency but the falls would be blocked so that another boat could not be gotten out.

The present invention aims to overcome the above indicated disadvantages by providing a device which will instantly release one end of a boat on the release of the opposite end. This device consists essentially of a 'flexible connection between the fall blocks supporting the boat therefrom and so arranged that when one block is released the Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 26, 1915. Serial N o. 804,064.

connection slackens and automatically releases the other block or else pulls free from the boat without any appreciable resistance.

In the drawings which illustrate the inventionzFigure 1 is a longitudinal section of a lifeboat in process of being lowered. Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing the operation of the releasing device when one end only of the boat becomes water borne. Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing a slightly alternative arrangement. Fig. l is another view similar to Fig. 1 showing two alternative arrangements as applied to boats having a substantially rigid connection between their fall blocks. Fig. 5 is an enlarged side elevation of one end of the releasing gear. Fig. 6 is an end elevation corresponding to Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 5 showing the arrangement for hoisting a boat back aboard.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, 11 designates a life-boat of suitable kind having transverse thwarts 12 and at each end jaws 13 just blow the level of the gunwale and anchored to the keel. Between each pair of aws a hook 1st is pivoted which is so weighted on the back 15 that it will instantly fall between the jaws if released, thus asuming an inverted position as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 5. The fall blocks are designated 16 and are usually provided with beckets which are engaged by the hooks 14C when in their raised positions. This connection is usually maintained when the boat is inboard, on chocks, by means of small pins 17 passing through the noses of the hooks, see Fig. 5 or 7). lVhen the boat is swung out these pins 17 are withdrawn. Theoretically when the boat drops into the water the falls slacken and the hooks drop betweenV the jaws thus releasing the boat. In practiceJ however, this release is dependent on two factors; lirst, stillwater, and second, uniform lowering of both ends of the boat. There is in addition the factor of operativeness of hooks. lf one end of the boat is lowered faster than the other or if the boat is lowered in rough water one end becomes water borne before the other so that one fall releases and the other does not, with the result that the boat is suspended at one end. Many boats have been stove in against the vessels side and many boats crews drowned in this way. Attempt is made to overcome this in rough weather by lowering the boat with the hook pins 17 in place but then comes the disadvantage that one pin may be rusted or frozen in or bent so that it cannot be easily withdrawn. Allowing the pins to be in perfect condition, it is hardly reasonable to suppose that two men at opposite ends of a boat, in a sudden emergency or panic, will withdraw their pins simultaneously.

1n the present invention the beckets of the lower fall blocks are replaced by rollers 18 over which a cable 19 of wire, fiber, chain, hide or any other suitable material, passes. The ends of this cable are connected to links 2O with which the hooks 11 may engage, these links being of such size that they will pass readily through the rollers 18. This constitutes the essential feature of the invention, namely, a flexible connection between the lower fall blocks engaging at its ends with the hooks 14 or any other structure on the boat serving the purpose of connecting the same to the falls. It is obvious that the same result will be obtained if the cable passes over an additional shea ve of the fall block.

The preferred method of dealing with the length of cable between the blocks is to pass the same through a tube Q1. placed longi tudinally of the boat immediately' under the thwarts. This tube is of sufficient size to permit the easy passage of the links 20. The cable passes downwardly from the roller 18 and arounda roller 22 at the end of the tube so thatI the cable may move through the tube with as little friction as possible. These rollers will obviously carry a portion of the weight of the boat and the pivot pins 23 thereof are preferably passed through jaws 21 which may be attached independently to the keel or to the jaws 13, so that there is practically no stress on the tube. The tube in addition to forming a housing for the cable acts as a central division in the boat and prevents crew or passengers moving or being thrown suddenly from side to side of the boat and thus capsizing it. For convenience in hoisting the boat aboard a clevis or becket 25 may be attached on the same pin as the roller 18 and normally held up out of engagement with the cable by a strand of light cord i6.

1n order to prevent the occupants of the boat being injured by the swinging cable if the same should be drawn through the tube as the boat gets away a loop of light cord 27 may be attached to each end of the tube, surrounding the cable. This loop will catch the link 2O as it passes out of the tube and produce just sufficient tension in the cable to cause same to snap away from the boat when the cord breaks. The same eect may be produced in other ways but the one shown is thought to be the simplest and most eflicient.

In Fig. 8 a slight modification of the tube is shown, the tube, designated 21 being placed in the bottom of the boat and turned upwardly at the ends. The rollers 22 are placed at the bends of the tube and anchored as previously described.

In Fig. 1 two possible arrangements are shown in which the cable passes along any sort of substantially rigid connection between the fall blocks. On the left hand end of the figure the cable after passing over the roller 18 passes over a second roller 28 carried by the block. The distances D and 1) of these rollers from the pivotal center of the block must be regulated so that the tension of the cable has no tilting effect on the block. On the right hand end of the figure the cable passes down from the roller 18, around a roller 32a and then upwardly and over a roller 99 carried by the rigid connection 30 between the blocks, the cable passing through said connection 30 if the same is tubular. The roller 22 is anchored to the boat in any suitable manner.

The cable may be passed from block to block in a great variety of ways, either covered or uncovered, according as the circumstances require. The method of connecting the cable to the boat will also vary according to the equipment of the boat, so that it is impossible to describe in detail or even to contemplate such details, therefore the right is reserved to connect the cable ends with the boat in any manner and to pass the cable between the blocks in any manner.

The operation of the device is extremely simple, and in fact depends for efficiency largely upon this simplicity. When the boat is being lowered, as in Fig. 1, the only connection between the boat and the falls is the cable. 1f one end of the boat is raised by a wave the fall at that end is slackened and the load taken oif the cable. The weighted hook falls out of the link and the cable end and link run out over the roller 18, thus instantly freeing the raised end of the boat. Simultaneously with this action the slackening of the cable enables the hook at the other end of the boat to drop so that the other end of the cable is released from the boat and free to run out of the roller 18. 1f the hook stuck at one end the cable would merely draw out through the tube. Even if neither hook fell the links would slide oft when the boat was lifted by the water. 1n the event of the boat being lowered faster at one end than at the other the same condition would occur as shown in Fig. 2 eX- cept that the release would be made at the lower end instead of at the upper. From the foregoing it will be seen that with this device it is utterly impossible for a boat to be released at one end only. The release of one end is in fact the release of both for the reason that there is only one connection, the cable, between the two ends of the boat and the two fall blocks.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is l. A releasing gear for life-boats comprising the combination with fall blocks of rollers suspended below said blocks, a single flexible member releasably attached at its ends to the ends of the boat and arranged to run normally over said rollers and to run out of engagement with said rollers when released at either end.

2. A releasing gear for life-boats comprising the combination with fall blocks or' rollers suspended below said blocks, a single flexible member passing over the roller of both blocks, means attaching the ends of said member to the ends of the boat adapted to disconnect both ends of said member from the boat upon either end of the boatbeing water borne.

3. A releasing gear for life-boats comprising the combination with fall blocks of rollers suspended below said blocks, a single flexible member passing over said rollers, having links in the ends thereof, and hooks at the ends of the boat engaging in said links and arranged to fall by gravity out of engagement with said links upon the boats weight being removed from either end of said connection.l

4. A releasing gear for life-boats comprising the combination with fall blocks of rollers carried by said blocks, gravity hooks at the ends of the boat, a roller at each end of the boat adjacent said hooks and a single eXible connection between the boat and fall blocks attached at its ends to said hooks and passing over the fall block rollers and then Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the over the boat rollers, and a housing for said connection intermediate the boat rollers.

5. A releasing gear Jfor life-boats comprising the combination with fall blocks of a roller carried by each block, a tube located longitudinally of the boat, rollers at the ends of said tube, hooks pivotally mounted at the ends of the boat and adapted to fall by gravity, means anchoring said hooks and rollers to the boat keel, a single flexible member passing at its central portion through said tube and near its ends over the block rollers, and links at the ends of said member engaging the hooks when in elevated position and maintained in engagement by the boats weight tensioning said member whereby relief of such tension liberates the hooks and releases the boat.

6. A releasing gear for life-boats comprising the combination with fall blocks of a tube disposed longitudinally in the boat, rollers carried by the fall blocks, gravity hooks at the ends of the boat, a single flexible member passing at its central portion through said tube and adjacent its ends passing over said rollers, and links in the ends of said member engaging the hooks, said member and links being adapted to pass entirely through said rollers and tube.

7. An automatic releasing gear for lifeboats comprising a single ieXible member connected at its ends and central portion to the boat, and passing intermediate its ends and central portion through attachments to the fall block In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of two witnesses.

S. R. W. ALLEN, G. M. MORELAND.

Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. l 

